Banecasting
The Bane, also known as Lifepoison, is a source energy that all living beings have. Losing it all means you wither away and die. Having too much of it leads to a rather messy end as well. Think cancerous tumour growth at the rate of a year a minute. Banesense is the ability to sense the bane within all living and formerly-living things. The "colour" of the Bane varies. Usually, it's just the tugging sensation on your mind. 99.5% of the human race are Baneless, and do not have banesense. The remaining 0.5% of humans are Banebloods, they possess banesense, which is what defines them as hereditary nobility, even without titles. Of the baneblooded, 1/100 (0.005% of humans) are Banecasters - able to manipulate the Bane and bend it to their own will- capability of influencing objects and living things. The banecaster's strength is measured in calibres. Method of measuring calibres- metric for calibres involving a standardized testing pattern and heavy wooden balls measured in the Old Imperial Calibres, ranging from first (about the weight of a musket ball) to Tenth (About the weight of a small house). A banecaster's calibre is rated by the heaviest ball they can pick up off the ground using said pattern. *The higher the calibre, the rarer is it. For example, a 9th calibre caster would be in the upper 99th percentile of casters, so someone with that kind of power is one in every two million or so humans. *The dozen or so Tenth-Calibre banecasters alive are roughly equal in strength. However, it's more about how well they're able to use their power more than sheer force of casting. Human banecasters limited by four main constraints: *Natural ability- -ten calibres: 1st - very little ability, while tenth calibre- awe-inspiring- **able to heal fatal wounds **turn the tide of battles **create armour and weapons of impossible durability and strength. bane-hardened **pulling entire bulldings down with their power **Summoning banefire hot enough to incinerate human bodies instantly *Resources- *Baneseals -discs of wax-10 cm in width and 5 cm thick, attached to a strip of parchment paper upon which banerunes are written in fresh blood (be it human or otherwise). -anchor points - allow caster's mental powers to be amplified + channelled properly into the casting medium. Must be arranged in the proper pattern to achieve the desired effect. **Simple procedures require only few dozen baneseals. **Complex casts, can take hundreds of seals + multilayered patterns that might take hours to prepare. *Banecasting is a physically and mentally exhausting activity- process of casting also siphons off a small amount of the caster's own Bane- casters who use their powers regularly often live considerably shorter lives *Casting medium -Bane- only exists within alive / recently alive- can only directly affect thse-why baneseals must be marked with fresh blood, armour and weapons must have runes etched into them + anointed with oils *Laws of physics -must respect the laws of inertia, thermodynamics and conservation of matter. Banepattern: A specially designed pattern of baneseals (specially made wax seals) which allows a Banecaster to channel the bane into performing in a particular manner. Banepatterns usually consist of anywhere from fifty to three thousand baneseals. Banepatterns are basically coded ciphers for what exactly is supposed to happen. They're like landmines. It doesn't matter who steps on them, they still blow up the same way. Baneseal traps - are extremely situational tools of war. Any living creature can trigger them, so it's not a good idea to put them in any area where they might be set off accidentally, they take hours to set up, require a sufficiently powerful banecaster to be there to make the cast, and are pretty obvious to any baneblood who gets close enough. They are best used as area denial: to prevent enemy soldiers from entering a certain area. This makes them immensely useful in siege warfare (as you'll get to see in GoI). Standard procedure for disarming such traps is to send skirmishers forward to find the baneseals and remove them from the pattern, disrupting the whole thing. This is why baneseal traps are so much more useful in siege warfare: because said seals can be covered by defensive fire. The alternative is to simply hit the area where the banepattern is with enough artillery to disrupt the whole thing, or displace enough organic material to set it off prematurely. Healing in banecasting: Much-studied and extremely difficult process of healing injuries and wounds, sometimes taking hundreds of seals + multilayered patterns that might take hours to prepare. Tierran banecasters can perform uncomplicated procedures such as growing an eye back. However Tierran physicians still don't quite understand stuff like tissue rejection or germ theory, do not know how to cut out damaged or infected tissues and perform complicated intricate surgery such as spine-repairs. Category:Browse